Chair of the Board Dr. Steven Isoye (2023) | Illinois State Board of education
Chair of the Board Dr. Steven Isoye (2023) | Illinois State Board of education
During the same period, Hamilton County Junior/Senior High School's 482 white students, who make up 96.2% of the school population, received 104 suspensions.
Of the 110 total suspensions at Hamilton County Junior/Senior High School in the 2021-22 school year, 97 were in-school suspensions and 13 out-of-school suspensions. In addition to suspensions, one student was expelled from the school. In addition to suspensions, one student was expelled from the school.
According to the report, in the 2021-22 school year, 11 student suspensions at Hamilton County Junior/Senior High School were for violence-related offenses and seven for those including drugs.
The most common infraction causing suspension, however, was tobacco offenses, tallying 25 cases - 22.7% of the total infractions.
During the 2021-22 school year, Hamilton County Junior/Senior High School reported 73 students - equivalent to 14.5% of its student body - as chronically truant, meaning they had a repeated pattern of unexcused lateness or missing classes. In addition, 163 students, or 32.6% of the student population, fell into the chronically absent category, a broader measure that includes all absences, excused or not.
In a broader context, data from the ProPublica database indicates that Black students are suspended at a rate 4.6 times higher than white students in Illinois—surpassing the already high national average rate of 3.9 times.
However, districts’ officials deny a direct link between these statistics and race. Lisa Small, the Superintendent of District 211, argues that these numbers oversimplify the situation. “Decisions are highly individualized and based on the specific behavior and are not well-suited to a simple numerical analysis,” she wrote in a statement. “They are not a statistic to us, but a developing young adult.”
Illinois ranks 12th in the nation for the highest rate of suspensions among Black students relative to their white peers.
| Race | Number of Students | Total Infractions | Infractions Per Student |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiracial | 10 | 1 | 0.1 |
| White | 482 | 104 | 0.22 |
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